The FBI would be able to monitor everybody’s entire lives if Apple is forced to unlock terrorist’s iPhone, judge says

If the US government is allowed to force Apple to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone then our entire lives could come under surveillance, a judge has said.

If that ruling went through, it would make way for a “virtually limitless expansion of the government’s legal authority to surreptitiously intrude on personal privacy”, judge James Orenstein said in the ruling.

That would happen because of the increasing importance of the “internet of things”, according to the judge. That refers to the trend for having more and more web-connected devices in our homes, controlling everything from cameras to our lights.

“As constantly increasing computing power is continually squeezed into ever smaller storage devices, the category of consumer products containing licensed software will continue to grow,” the judge wrote in a footnote.

“In a world in which so many devices, not just smartphones, will be connected to the Internet of Things, the government’s theory that a licensing agreement allows it to compel the manufacturers of such products to help it surveil the products’ users will result in a virtually limitless expansion of the government’s legal authority to surreptitiously intrude on personal privacy.